Democrats call for hearings on denial of passports at border

MEXICO CITY — Congressional Democrats on Thursday called for hearings into the government’s policy of denying U.S. passports to Hispanic-Americans along the U.S.-Mexico border and questioning the citizenship of hundreds, and possibly thousands, of Americans.

Texas congressmen said the government’s policy, reported Wednesday by The Washington Post, is part of a systemic anti-Hispanic bias that has guided the administration’s immigration policy and suggested they would propose legislation to address the policy.

“This represents an unacceptable targeting of people based on their ethnic heritage. It violates the Constitution,” said Rep. Joaquin Castro, D-Texas.

But Republican leadership is unlikely to bow to Democratic demands on any proposed legislation on the issue.

The State Department is denying passports to a number of people with official U.S. birth certificates that state they were born in south Texas over the past 70 years.

The government alleges that decades ago, midwives and some doctors in the region provided fraudulent birth certificates to babies who were actually born in Mexico.

In some cases, in the 1990s, several of those birth attendants pleaded guilty to fraud.

But the same midwives and doctors accused of fraud also delivered tens of thousands of babies in Texas, and, decades later, it is nearly impossible to distinguish between the relatively small number of fraudulent birth certificates and the swell of legal ones.

Iran living up to terms

VIENNA — Even after the U.S. pulled out of an international accord to curb Iran’s nuclear program, Tehran has continued to stick to its side of the deal, according to a report from the International Atomic Energy Agency.

Iran’s stockpile of enriched uranium — which can be used to make nuclear weapons — was once again significantly below the 300-kilogram limit set out in the deal, the quarterly report said.

As agreed, construction at the planned Arak reactor, which could have produced plutonium for weapons, has remained suspended, the report added. It said that Iran had allowed access to IAEA inspectors to review key sites.

Libyan death toll rises

TRIPOLI, Libya — The death toll from clashes that erupted this week in the Libyan capital Tripoli among rival militias has risen to 30, according to figures released Thursday by the Health Ministry.

Ninety-six others were injured, the ministry said.

Most of the casualties were civilians caught in the clashes, the ministry said.

Clashes erupted Monday between competing armed militias in southern Tripoli. A ceasefire was declared late Wednesday in the city, with a cautious calm prevailing Thursday.

Libya is currently split between two rival governments: one in Tripoli and one in Tobruk.

Fayez Serraj, the head of the U.N.-backed government based in Tripoli, called for abiding by the ceasefire on Thursday.